Winter School 2013

Winter School 2013

The iCareNet Winter School 2013 will take place during February 18 - 22, 2013 in the renowned Swiss mountain region Davos-Klosters. The iCareNetWinter School 2013 will feature various exiting talks from well-known researchers in the fields of human-computer interaction and context sensing. The detailed programme can be found here.

Scope and aims

The event aims to provide the starting iCareNet research fellows with a platform to meet and jointly learn about approaches and techniques for context-aware systems in healthcare, wellness, and assisted living applications. The second iCareNet Winter school will specifically focus on:

Human-Computer Interaction. The iCareNet members are introduced to crowdsourcing and design methods and smartphone introductions.

In addition, the event gives iCareNet fellows a first opportunity to present their work to a panel of senior researcher in a doctoral colloquium and continue working on ongoing workgroups.

Objectives in detail

Human-Computer Interaction. Designing user interfaces and interaction with context-aware systems is challenging. The invisibility of devices, sensors and services can make it difficult for end-user to understand its functioning and purpose. But the understanding and analysis of user interaction with context-aware systems is essential to the function and success of their application. Hardware solutions for producing this context information and gathering user preferences are introduced. Topics include:

Crowdsourcing as a method for user preferences

Context-aware configuration

Designing context-aware applications

The use of mobile phones for context sensing and HCI experiments

Activity Recognition. Context sensing applications consisting of worn and ambient sensors are expected to be operational for long periods of time and are expected to adapt to changes in the environment and to the sensor configuration. Topics include:

Changes that are expected to the sensor configurations (environmental changes, failure / addition of sensors)

Machine learning methods

Robust and opportunistic activity recognition

Workgroups. In addition to the regular programme of lectures and discussion sessions, the winter school provides opportunities to continue work in workgroups, addressing specific topics relevant for context-aware HWA systems development. Fellows are invited to propose workgroup topics and supporting senior researchers of iCareNet.

Doctoral Colloquium. Fellows are given the opportunity to present their initial results and progress in their project to a panel of senior researchers who will provide feedback during a doctoral colloquium.

Course material

The course material will be provided on this page shortly before the school event.

Social events

The iCareNet Winter School is held at the Swiss winter sports region Davos-Klosters. Fellows and senior researchers will be meeting regularly for dinner and evening discussions at the hotel.

Venue and local information

The iCareNet Winter School venue is Hotel Sport in Klosters. Klosters can be reached by train in approx. 2 hours from Zurich airport (ZRH). From Zurich airport frequent connections are available to most European destinations. Alternatively, Basel airport (BSL) could be considered.

Participants are requested to reserve their hotel room at Hotel Sport in Klosters. The hotel offers different room types for the iCareNet event. To reserve please complete the hotel booking form and return it to icarenet_office <AT> lists.actlab.ele.tue.nl by January 20, 2013. Further details on the venue and region can be found in General Information below.

Registration (for iCareNet fellows only)

For iCareNet research fellows participation in the Winter School is compulsory. Research fellows need to register by sending an email message with the digital proof of the registration fee payment to icarenet_office <at > lists.actlab.ele.tue.nl. The registration fee includes coffee break catering, hotel fees, and course material.

Registration must be made before February 5, 2013. The registration fee of 150 EUR must be paid by bank transfer to: